UK donates Leo Sayer to Oz

The United Kingdom has raised no objection to the release of Leo Sayer from the bonds of British citizenship, and the crooner yesterday celebrated Australia Day by becoming a full-fat Aussie, the Beeb reports.

Sayer, 60, is best known for 1977 UK chart-topper When I Need You. His other career highlight came when he walked out of 2007's Celebrity Big Brother following an unpleasant row over "fresh underwear".

Specifically, he lost his rag when Big Brother "refused to give him new underpants after he ran out of clean pairs". He allegedly stormed out of the house "after knocking down a door with a shovel" - thereby seriously undermining his 1973 assertion that The Show Must Go On.

Sayer returned to the Lucky Country where he'd been resident since 2005 - a land of plenty which he says has given him a "a new lease of life". He explained: "I'm 60 and I feel like a 20-year-old at the moment in my life here, because everyone is so much encouraging me to keep working and everything. In the old country, England, it would have been, 'Sorry, you're from the 70s and that's it.'"

Sayer swore his citizenship oath in front of Oz PM Kevin Rudd, as one of more than 13,000 people welcomed into the Oz fold in Canberra yesterday. ®